Run Away
by cforrester2000
Summary: Set around 2X04. After a particular night, Mary discovers that she is pregnant. The thing is: who is the father? Her baseball player fiancé, or her best friend? Fearing what is coming next, in either case, Mary disappears. Will she find the happy ending she never knew she needed or deserved?


Mary let herself get caught up in emotion very few times in her life. So little, she could probably count the times on one of her rather large hands. But when Mary found herself at her partners house after discovering Raph's plans to transfer teams and move out of state, with or without her no less, she couldn't feel, let alone, contain her emotions about the situation and sought solace in her best friend.

When Marshall awoke the next day to an empty bed, he knew that their night together was a one time thing and only hoped that they could at least pretend to be professional until the awkwardness died down. What he did not expect was when he went into work the next day was the impromptu engagement party hosted by Elanor, for Mary. Turns out, she went back and Raph had apologized and proposed and had decided to take a local position while they planned their wedding. From what he could tell, no mention of their night together had passed through Mary's lips into Raph's ears.

Marshall held himself together through the party, but ended up leaving early, telling Stan something had come up and he needed to take some personal time. He booked a plane to visit his parents, leaving Mary behind nonetheless.

The next few weeks trudged on for Mary. She could tell that their night together had had a deeper impact on Marshall than he was letting on. To be honest, it had hit her deeper than she had anticipated and it scared her, though she would never admit that to anyone. Stan was helping out with covering Marshall's cases but she still felt overly exhausted at the end of each day. With no clue of when Marshall was planning on returning, Mary was growing more and more frustrated with her day to day life, and especially with her relationship with Raph.

After four weeks of Marshall being MIA, Raph had given up trying, which Mary respected. She thought he would have left after he had broken his ankle at practice and she failed to drop everything and run to be by his side. Mary was heartbroken, but never let anyone see how it had hurt her.

Shortly after, Mary came down with what she believed to be a stomach bug. After a couple more weeks of worshipping the porcelain gods each morning, she decided to pick up a pregnancy test on her way home from work, just to prove to herself that her body was just betraying her like everyone else had. After waiting the three minutes, and seeing the plus sign appear, she still told herself that it had to be wrong, and whatever it was that was truly wrong with her, she would get over in due time. After a few days, Mary had caught news that Marshall was back in town.

The next time she saw Marshall was after Stan had woken her up after a restless night to notify her that Lewis Ford had gotten trapped in a collapsed building, and was fully exposed to the media, or any of the people he was testifying against. They saw each other in passing but did not make any small talk, because they had bigger fish to fry. Next thing Mary knew, she was scaling the debris in order to protect her witness.

After several hours of being told that they would be out in 20 minutes, and being told the same thing a half hour later, nightfall had caused the pair to grow increasingly cold. Mary began to remember one of Marshall's pregnancy fetish ramblings about how pregnant mothers needed to maintain a higher body temperature, and how extreme cold can cause distress to the baby. Something like that. It had been almost two months since she and Marshall had spoken. Forgive her for not being able to truly recall the nonsense ramblings of her backstabbing partner who ditched her without any sort of goodbye. If she was indeed pregnant, she felt this need that she could not describe to protect her child. Deciding to try and get her stomach warm, she places Lewis' plasma bags on her stomach.

"Why exactly are you wanting that blood to go?" Ford asks cockily.

Mary snorts at the comment, but she let her mind wonder.

"What? No rhetorical remark? Geez, Mary, you've gone soft." Ford says. Mary was not one to let anyone call her soft. She grabs her radio and tells Stan she was going radio silent. Turning her radio off before any response was made she yanked her earpiece from her ear, and stared down at her hands.

"Not going soft. I know I'm not supposed to let you know anything about my personal life, but if we don't get out of here soon, you may not be able to get the opportunity to pass on this information to anyone else. I have this stick I have been carrying around in my car. Its gross really, but it says that I have this thing growing inside of me. I'm not sure if I really believe it or not yet, but I figure if its true then better do what I can." Mary says.

"You? A mom?" Ford laughs, and then grunts from the pain. Mary smiles and nods.

"If your pregnant, why are you risking your safety to come and play protector to a dead man?" Ford asks.

"Just told you. Not ready to believe it for myself quite yet. Besides, who wouldn't want this face to be the last one they see before they meet the maker?" Mary says. "None of the people downstairs know about this yet, so if you say anything, I will brush it off as the mumblings of a dying man." Ford nods, and Mary reconnects her radio when she notices a particular crewman acting oddly.

"Stan, somethings going on up here. All of the workers up here are fleeing, except one. Somethings wrong." Mary says.

"I'm on my way," Marshall responds, running into the building.

Suddenly, Mary felt the building shake beneath her. She braced against the debris while scanning her surroundings. She could hear Stan calling for her, but suddenly she could see a figure appearing from the dust holding a gun aimed at her head.

"You're late Harrison. I expected you hours ago." Ford tells him.

"Traffic," He responds, then turns to Mary. "Harrison Locke, nice to meet you, now loose the earpiece." Mary nods, and pulls the wire from both her ear and the radio, so that Stan and Marshall would hear what was going on downstairs.

"Let her go Harrison, she's not a part of this. She's pre-" Ford starts, then Mary cuts him off.

"She is pretty frustrated with having to sit on frozen concrete in the freezing sky because some idiots decided to blow up a building in the middle of Mexico." Mary saves herself, hoping that Marshall and Stan wouldn't be asking any questions later on.

Harrison discusses the point of loyalty to a partner with Locke, but Mary knew it had a deeper meaning in her heart. Marshall was her best friend and they made a mistake, one that she would have to live with the rest of her life. She knew the dangers of the foster system and knew that she wouldn't be placing the baby up for adoption. She also knew that Marshall was noble and would drop everything if he knew there was even a remote possibility he was the father. Since Mary had discovered the news, the thought crossed her mind several times that either Marshall or Raph could be the baby's father. However, she was 99% sure that anytime that she and Raph were together, they were protected. However, she could not say the same for her night with her friend.

She started to understand what Locke was trying to say. They both were there to do a job. They both completed the job. However, Ford betrayed his partner, who was nothing but good to him. And the incident ended up saving lives. Mary found herself defending Locke, although she felt out of place given the events of the last two months. She knew Marshall could hear what she was saying, and he knew that she was being completely truthful, even after her comment regarding selling him out for a twinkie once Harrison was caught on the record. Once the crews were able to get Ford out to safety, Mary passed a handcuffed Locke over to Al Dennison, and climbed out after them.

Once the party made it downstairs, and Harrison was handed off to the marshal service, Marshall noticed the party was one short. He grabbed Dennison as he was walking past.

"Dennison, where's Marshal Shannon?" Marshall asks, looking around. Dennison turns and his expression turns from relief to shock.

"She was right behind us." Dennison tells him. Stan and Marshall begin to panic and lock down the seen again as they prepare another crew to go back in.

On the opposite end of the building, not covered by anyone oddly enough, Mary emerged and snuck out to her car without being seen. She took one last look at the scene behind her. She would get news to Stan somehow, but for now she had to get out of Albuquerque, and away from those who she would end up eventually hurting if she stayed. What hurt her were the same people were those who she loved and cared about the most. Once she pulled away from the scene, she just drove.

Drove until the sunrise met the horizon.


End file.
